Product Description

A reference and companion volume to "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" explores the background and underlying symbolism of Pirsig's classic work.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #54618 in Books
• Published on: 1990-12-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 408 pages

Customer Reviews

Beware filler
I bought this book hoping for a large amount of further discussion and explanation to ZMM. Instead I found a brief (necessarily, given the hugeness of the topic) background to Eastern and Western philosophy (better covered elsewhere), some previously unpublished sections of the original ZMM manuscript (which felt somewhat like watching short DVD "Deleted Scenes" and trying to relate them to the original film), and a very large section devoted to reprinting original reviews of ZMM. A lot of the book seemed to be merely filler to me.

Perhaps the best part of the guidebook is a reprint of a letter written by Pirsig to Robert Redford explaining his views on the book and how it could be turned into a film (thankfully never realised!).

This book _does_ provide some additional discussion of Pirsig's ideas, but I found the topics were better covered in Pirsig's second book: Lila (which, incidentally, documents the meeting with Redford that follows the aforementioned letter). Lila, being an extension of the ideas of Quality discussed in ZMM, forms a far better "guide" to ZMM than this book.

Lots of Meat to Chew Over
Fascinating look into some of the deep issues behind ZMM - brilliant section on Eastern religion/philosophy is only slightly marred by turgid overwrought section on Western philosophy -or perhaps that's my own philisophical preferences talking. Essential for people who found themselves fascinated by the deep metaphysical issues in ZMM. Not recommended, however, for people who found themselves skipping the long bits about philosophy and wanted to get back to the road story all the time.

Highly recommended companion to Pirsig's book
Additional background material, both philosophical and historical, really illuminates the original Pirsig book. The bonus is sometimes startling insights, and new questions (often unanswered for the reader to work out). Think of it as an informal but well-written textbook by teachers who care both about the material and the student. It lures the reader into further self-study in epistemology, metaphysics, aesthetics, and ethics. Contains valuable passages that were edited out of the original Pirsig book.